Department of Biotechnology

Advancements 3

Articles 4

Articles 5

Articles 6

Articles 7

Articles 8

Articles 9

December 2013 Volume 2, Issue 2

Mepco Schlenk Engineering College

Biotechnology Association

Vision :

Impart strong theoretical

background in the fundamental

concepts of biology and

chemical engineering .

Train students to be methodical

and systematic and to pursue

laboratory experiments with

utmost care and purpose .

Expose students to modern

tools of biotechnology research

Mission :

To enable students to acquire

specialized skills in core aspects of

engineering and life sciences and

apply them for the development of

innovative technology .

To transform the department into a

full-fledged research facility by

developing infrastructure to pursue

research in cutting edges of

biotechnology .

To train students to realize

enormous responsibility of being a

biotechnologist to serve society

taking cognizance of ethical and

environmental responsibilities .

Vision and Mission of the Department :

Program Educational Objectives :

Understand and apply the concepts of biology , chemical engineering and related aspects

of science and technology to pursue higher studies / biotechnology oriented profession .

Identify , analyze and solve the problems with novelty and updated their knowledge in

product / process / techniques development to meet the social demands .

Demonstrate professional and ethical attitude with awareness of current issues and think

about the social entailment of their work especially its impact on safety , health and

environment .

Effectively communicate technical information facilitating collaboration with the experts

across different disciplines and execute multi-disciplinary projects .

Participate in team oriented , open ended activities aiding constructive thinking and

recognize the value of continuing education .

Apply the acquired practical skills and broad biotechnological training to excel in

entrepreneurship , teaching , research and development .

Program Outcomes :

Applications of fundamentals of physical , chemical concepts and mathematics in

biotechnology .

Showing originality and innovation in designing experiments ability to think critically to

analyze results and discussions of the experimental outcome in detail .

Develop experimental protocol / methodology / process to achieve set of objectives within

constrains of biosafety .

Adopt , grasp and absorb knowledge across disciplines and ability to integrate within

research ideas of biotechnology .

Troubleshoot experimental problems with intellectual agility .

Disposing professional and ethical responsibility .

Articulating concepts , hypothesis and problems eloquently.

Understanding implications of biotechnology in social context .

Realizing significance of life-long learning by evincing in specialized areas of

biotechnology.

Keeping updated with contemporary issues facilitating multi-dimensional learning

process .

Being inquisitive in understanding in cutting areas of biotechnology .

Ability to plan , act and perform in consonance with set carrier goals and objectives .

“Live ne ither in the

past nor in the

future, but let each

day’s work absorb

all your interest,

energy and

enthus iasm”

-Sir Wi l l iam Os ler

Page 3 Department of Biotechnology

Culturing animal cells invitro is one of the major tools used in biotechnology for

studying the physiology and metabolism of normal cells and cancer cells as well as for testing

the effect of drugs and toxic compounds on cells. Though researchers have been culturing cells

for more than hundred years cells are typically cultured in petri dishes or flasks in two

dimensional layers. These cells do behave the same as the cells inside our body. In vivo cells

grow three-dimensionally and form tissue that consists of cells that have changed their structure

to perform a specific function in the body and other components, called matrix, that the

specialized cells secrete. In vitro cells do not specialize, or differentiate. This poses obvious

limits to researchers who want to understand mechanisms that govern cell behavior and tissue

formation.

Hence researchers in NASA‘s Johnson Space Centre(JSC) discovered a new innovative

way of culturing cells three-dimensionally. They had a theory that if cells could be grown

without the influence of Earth's gravity, they would not settle to the bottom of the culturing

container; rather, they would be suspended in the media and therefore might assemble and form

tissue that more closely resembles tissue in the body.

The simulated growth of mammalian cells in tissue culture needed to duplicate the

quiet conditions of orbital free-fall in a way that allowed for maintaining fresh media and

oxygen. To solve the problem, researchers in NASA in the 1980s developed the bioreactor, a

can-like vessel equipped with a membrane for gas exchange and ports for media exchange and

sampling. This is known as High Aspect Ratio Vessel (HARV) .

As the bioreactor turns, the cells continually fall through the medium yet never hit

bottom. Under these quiet conditions, the cells "self assemble" to form clusters that sometimes

grow and differentiate much as they would in the body. Devised a new reactor vessel High

Aspect Ratio Vessel (HARV) for this purpose. It is a bioreactor about the size of a soup can was

rotated using an electric drill

Applications:

Our body tissues can be cultured three dimensionally for research and transplantations.

The tissue samples grown in the rotating bioreactor are being used to design therapeutic

drugs or antibodies.

Culturing of several infectious agents that are difficult to grow and control in a culture

setting for studying their virulence.

Researchers at the joint Center have also had success culturing the human

immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) in full dynamic process, which should provide a new

perspective on the disease and on possible treatments.

A company called VivoRx is currently using the rotating bioreactor to culture the

differentiated pancreatic cells, which are then encapsulated in treated seaweed membranes to

make them acceptable to the human immune system. Once transplanted, the cells secrete the

appropriate amount of insulin for regulating the body's blood sugar levels.

Bioreactors have been used aboard the Mir Space Station to grow larger cultures than even

terrestrial-bioreactors can support. Several cancer types, including breast and colon cancer

cells, have been studied in this manner. Continued research using the NASA Bioreactor is

planned aboard the International Space Station.

High aspect ratio reactor vessel HARV:

"Great thoughts

speak only to the

thoughtful mind, but

great actions speak

to all

mankind." - Emily P.

Bissell

Page 4 Department of Biotechnology

The casein content of milk represents about 80% of milk protein. It is responsible for

the white, opaque appearance of milk in which it is combined with calcium as clusters of casein

molecules called 'micelles'. The formation of micelle depends on temperature. Caseins are used

in food industries (mainly in cheese production) because of its emulsifying property.

Emulsifying property is because of β-casein fraction. Generally food industries spent lot on

maintaining cooling conditions to enable emulsification as the micelle formation is temperature

sensitive. So β- casein is engineered to introduce double or single cysteine residue to form

intra/inter disulfide bridge. Therefore its micellization property is achieved even upto to 50°C.

Creation of semi-dwarf variety of White ponni rice plant A boon to

farmers G. Jothi lakshmi 2 n d M.Tech

Biofuel from Microalgae – “A Boon to modern society” J. Indumathi 2 n d M.Tech

Hike in petroleum cost as well as global warming and climatic change creates an urge

for us to research on effective alternative fuel source. The need for biofuel is increasing day by

day. Biofuel was initially extracted from food based crops namely sugarcane, wheat etc. but the

process is time consuming and also a large amount of food crops were wasted. Then to

overcome those disadvantages it shifted to non-food based crops such as wood, leaves, straw

etc. But still the demand was not able to meet. So there come the Microalgae a perfect

alternative for all existing non- renewable resources so far. They are considered to be a rich

source for carbohydrate and also negligible lignin content so that it can be easily treated to

extract ethanol. The process behind the biofuel extraction from microalgae is not a tedious one

to perform. Conversion of biomass from microalgae into biofuel could also be economically

feasible since some algae hydrolysates can contain more total carbohydrate and hexoses sugars

than some terrestrial, lignocellulosic biomass feedstock. In the United States, ethanol is actually

used in two forms: mixed with gasoline in maximum proportion of 10% or in mixtures

containing 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, as an alternative fuel. Biofuel production from algae

has great potential for sustainable development. However, there have been difficulties in order

to widely commercialize biofuel as an alternative to petroleum based fuels, and it needs more

studies in the future to resolve these troubles

India is an agricultural country. Farmers are the Backbone of India. Rice is the world's

most diverse crop which serves as food for half of the world's population. It is the most

important crop to millions of small farmers who grow it. White Ponni, a hybrid variety is

widely cultivated in states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The yield of ponni rice is about

45 quintals per hectare but loss due to lodging is almost equal to half of its yield. Lodging

usually occurs in grain crops when plant is mature and with filled grain heads due to the action

of wind, rain. The farmers suffer a lot due to lodging loss. Lodging problem can be overcome

by controlling the plant height and thereby supporting the backbone of India.

Gibberellins are found to be the major plant hormone that promotes the plant height.

Gibberellin biosynthesis can be disrupted and so a significant reduction in plant height was

noticed and upon treatment with active gibberellins, plant height is restored. The gibberellin

content is lowered by targeting the mRNA of the gene encoding gibberellin oxidase, an enzyme

that catalyzes the limiting step in gibberellin biosynthesis. This fact is utilized to reduce the

plant height for producing a semi-dwarf variety of White Ponni plant that can resist lodging.

This will be helpful for the farmers for improving the rice yield without any loss due to lodging.

Engineering of caseins – Enhanced cheese production S.Ananthi 4th B.Tech

“We will

either find a

way,or make

one”

-Hannibal

Page 5 Volume 2, Issue 2

Is it 1 / 2/ 3/ 4? What could it be? Ooosh! I am totally perplexed.....

Characterisation of novel dengue viral strain D.Febe Brightlin 2nd M.Tech

“Great things are

not done by

impulse,but by a

series of small

things brought

together”

-Vincent Van Gogh

Dengue is fast emerging pandemic-prone viral disease that flourishes rapidly in tropical

and subtropical countries. Dengue is the most important arthropod-borne viral disease of public

health significance. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the primary vector of dengue. The incidence

of dengue has grown dramatically around the world in recent decades. Over 2.5 billion people –

over 40% of the world's population – are now at risk from dengue. In a small proportion of cases

the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low

levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where

dangerously low blood pressure occurs. Dengue virus is a member of the flavivirus family.

Dengue virus is a positive sense, single stranded RNA genome of approximately 11Kb which is

packaged in a relatively small enveloped virion that is 50 nm in diameter.

There are four distinct, but closely related, serotypes of the virus that cause dengue

(DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4). Recovery from infection by one provides lifelong

immunity against that particular serotype. However, cross-immunity to the other serotypes after

recovery is only partial and temporary. Subsequent infections by other serotypes increase the risk

of developing severe dengue. This has made us in trying to get more information in terms of the

clinical data that we have in order for us to zoom down and see whether it's focused and localised

to a certain locality. In this research, the serum samples yielding virus isolates were drawn within

1 week after onset of symptoms, which included fever, headache, muscular pain, rash, and

nausea.NS1 antigen detection is considered to be the first line for the diagnosis of acute dengue

virus infection, which was confirmed by using commercially available diagnostic kits. Vero cells

were used because it is the best suited cell line upon dengue infection. Vero cells were therefore

cultured and infected. The virus, thus obtained will be purified to complete homogeneity. The

viral RNA will be extracted to develop cDNA. The genomic component of the dengue virus will

be characterised further to identify the viral strain. Thereby, the study would demonstrate

extensive DENV serotype cocirculation and be helpful to predict the disease profile in future

dengue outbreaks in the areas were the sample is collected.

―Daytime mosquitoes endless chase

Ruins the life of human race

Why not one plan to characterise

In forthcoming days (Day:1/2/3/4)

The novel dengue viral strain

The serotype (DV:1/2/3/4)”

That exists down the lane”

Page 6 Department of Biotechnology

A Rapid, Cost-Effective Method of Assembly and Purification of Synthetic

DNA probes >100 bp H.Kavitha 4th B.Tech

Diagnos is of tuberculosis by Fus ion Proteins M.SivaSankar 2 n d M.Tech

“Action is

the product

of the

qualities

inherent in

nature”

Tuberculosis is a well-known infectious disease in human beings caused by

Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Currently new strategies are developed to replace the BCG

with safe and effective tuberculosis vaccine which provides a longer duration of

protection. The new tests evaluate the producttion of INF-γ by cells stimulated with two

specific M. tuberculosis antigens (CFP-10 and ESAT-6). CFP10 from M. tuberculosis is a

well characterized immunodominant (14KDa) protein antigen known to elicit a very po-

tent early gamma interferon response in T-cells from M. tuberculosis. ESAT-6 is another

protein secreted by M. tuberculosis and it is small 6KDa protein. It is released from the

bacteria by specialized secreted system and forms a complex with other protein. The

fusion of CFP-10 and ESAT-6 is more immunogenic and gives higher level of protection

than the individual antigens. INF-γ is currently used as a biomarker for tuberculosis

vaccine, but INF-γ alone is not sufficient for protection against tuberculosis. The fusion of

an epitope to a large carrier molecule coat protein could enhance the immunogenicity and

the stability of the epitope. These recombinant fusion proteins (CFP10, ESAT6 and INF-

γ) can be used as a diagnostic tool for tuberculosis.

Synthetic DNA probes are much needed in the molecular biology and genetic

engineering researches. The conventional means of chemical synthesis of probes are

expensive and much tedious in work. As an alternative researchers recently found the

application of fast link DNA ligase in synthesis of synthetic probes. It a rapid, cost-effective

method of generating molecular DNA probes in just under 15 minutes without the need for

expensive, time-consuming gel-extraction steps. Enzymatically concatenated six variable

strands (50 bp) with a common strand sequence (51 bp) in a single pool using Fast-Link

DNA ligase produced 101 bp targets (10 min). Unincorporated species were then filtered

out by passing the crude reaction through a size-exclusion column(<5min). Then compared

full-length product yield of crude and purified samples using HPLC analysis; the results of

which clearly show this method yields three-quarters that of the crude sample (50% higher

than by gel-extraction). Moreover, for large-scale assays, this method is also fully

automated with the use of robotics such as the Biomek FX . Here potentially thousands of

samples could be pooled, ligated and purified in either a in just minutes.

Saviour of Backbone of India- Integrated plant nutrient system through

effective microbes P.Maheswari 2nd M.Tech

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. 70% of population is dependent on

agriculture. World‘s population is assumed to increase from 7 billion in 2000 to 8.3 billion

in 2025. Food demand will also increase accompanied by population increase. Fertilizers

are important to improve crop yield and soil fertility. But applied chemical fertilizers are

lost due to leaching and it leads to environmental pollution. Biofertilizers play an important

role in plant growth and maintenance of soil fertility. But biofertilizers have shorter shelf

life, higher contamination and uneven distribution. Panchagavya is a promising source of

simple and less expensive plant nutrients. The integrated use of chemical fertilizer in a slow

release form along with panchagavya would be a promising fertilizer.

Dengue fever otherwise called as ―Breakbone fever‖ is a mosquito borne disease

caused by four serotypes of dengue virus. The two primary vectors of dengue virus is Aedes

aegypticus and Aedes albopictus. Recovery from infection by one serotype provides lifelong

immunity against that serotype but confers only partial and transient protection against

subsequent infection by the other three serotypes of dengue virus. It is essential to know

about the cellular modifications taking place after the infection by dengue virus. The

ultimate goal of this study is to elucidate the virus-cell interaction by two dimensional gel

electrophoresis which helps in analyzing the entire protein complement present in the

genome.

Viruses could be grown only in living cells. Vero cells isolated from African green

monkey kidney were found to be ideal and permissive for dengue viral infection. These cells

were grown under appropriate laboratory conditions and were infected with dengue virus for

the analysis of protein expression patterns in both the dengue infected and uninfected normal

cell lines. This cell-virus interaction reveals the basic idea about the components that are

required for viral replication as well as the host restriction factors raised against the virus.

Cellular response to dengue viral infection plays an important role in bringing about

immunopathological changes in the cell which in turn will provoke the immune system to

trigger an effective immune response against the virus in which powerful antagonist; the

proteins play a major defensive role thus leading to the virus clearance from the cell.

Extensive protein profiling methodology of two dimensional gel analysis was

performed by harvesting the infected and uninfected cells and a comparative study was done

by analyzing the protein expression patterns before infection and the modifications taking

place after the infection particularly concentrating the analysis of defensive proteins that has

been raised inorder to cease the activity of virus resulting in viral clearance from the cell

Following the traditional method (using random mutagenesis) of producing the

amino acid overproducing strain was difficult as it was tedious to follow the mutations

done and also there were problems of by-product formation. The most suitable way is to

engineer the metabolic pathways of E.coli as the mutations done are well defined.

Furthermore it will also be easy to keep in track of the mutations. Eg. Deletion of genes

responsible for Threonine degradation leads to accumulation of large amount of

threonine. And the accumulated Threonine was exported by overexpressing the

Threonine exporting genes. The added advantage is that the strain could be still more

developed to overexpress the aminoacid by further altering the metabolic pathway.

Page 7 Volume 2, Issue 2

Systems metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for L-threonine

production M.Priyanka 4th B.Tech

Identification and characterization of defensive proteins expressed in vero cells in

response to dengue viral infection B.Nageshwari 2nd M.Tech

"There is no one giant

step that does it. It's a lot

of little steps." - Peter A.

Cohen

Abiotic stress, such as high salinity and drought is the most common

challenge for sustainable food production in large parts of the world, in particular

in emerging countries. The ongoing and expected global climate change will

further increase these challenges in many areas, making improved stress resistance

of crops a key topic for the 21st Century. Proteomics, genomics and metabolomics

are methods allowing for the rapid and complete analysis of the complete

physiology of crop plants. This knowledge in turn, is the prerequisite for

improvements of crop resistance against abiotic stress through genetic

engineering.

Improving Crop Resistance to Abiotic Stress is a double-volume, up-to-

date overview of current progress in improving crop quality and quantity using

modern methods such as proteomics, genomics and metabolomics. Abiotic

stresses usually cause protein dysfunction. Maintaining proteins in their functional

conformations and preventing the aggregation of non-native proteins are

particularly important for cell survival under stress. Heat-shock proteins (Hsps)/

chaperones are responsible for protein folding, assembly, translocation and

degradation in many normal cellular processes, stabilization of proteins and

membranes, and can assist in protein refolding under stress conditions. They can

play a crucial role in protecting plants against stress by re-establishing normal

protein conformation and thus cellular homeostasis.

Recent studies have shown that the response of the plants to combination

of stresses could not be extrapolated from the response towards individual

stresses. Thus the future research on development of transgenic crops focus on the

combinatorial effects of stresses different stress conditions

The advent of new technologies made the life of man more sophisticated.

The world is now too small and the previously considered luxuries are now

becoming mandatory in most people life. Yet the dark side of these developments

are increasing pollution, fresh water depletion and global warming. The urgent need

to protect and create a sustainable environment is a cleaner, faster, cheaper and more

effective technology in waste water treatment. The organic matter present in waste

water increases the BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) resulting in death of aquatics

if released untreated into water bodies.

In this regard researchers have found a method called ‗Direct membrane

filtration (DMF). In this methodology a microfiltration membrane was investigated

to capture organic matter. The advantage of this method is that membrane fouling

can be controlled in DMF of domestic wastewater. It was also possible to achieve

stable continue membrane filtration with relatively high membrane fluxes by

applying chemically enhanced backwash (CEB) to recover organic matter.

Further chemical membrane cleaning could completely restore membrane

permeability, indicating the possibility of a much longer operation of DMF.

Selection of chemical reagents used for CEB was found to influence the amount of

organic matter recovered by DMF.

Page 8 Department of Biotechnology

Caption describing picture

or graphic.

Waste water treatment- Direct membrane filtration

C.Sri Sakthi 4th B.Tech

"The man who

follows the

crowd will

usually get no

further than the

crowd. The

man who walks

alone is likely to

find himself in

places no one

has ever been." -

Resistant Crops – Need of the hour S.RajaBlessina 4 t h B .Tech

The basic sources of energy are petroleum, natural gas, coal, hydro electrical

and nuclear. The need of energy is increasing continuously due to the increase in

population and industrialization. The continued use of petroleum sourced fuels is now

widely recognized as unsustainable because of the depletion supplies and the

contribution of these fuels to the accumulation of carbon di oxide in the environment

leading to increase of global warming. In the last ten years, many studies have been

conducted on biofuels for substituting fossil fuels and reduce the greenhouse gas

emission. In the European Union (EU), the transport sector is responsible for almost one

quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and it is, therefore, essential to find ways of

reducing emissions. Finding new energy resources to compensate the decrease of the

world petroleum reserves is an important challenge. Intending to replace oil-based fuels,

many studies have been conducted on non-renewable and renewable alternatives.

First generation biofuels correspond to those issued from food-based crops

(corn, beet, sugarcane, etc). Second generation biofuels are the cellulosic-based biofuels

obtained from non-food crops materials (wood, leaves, straw, etc.). Third generation

biofuels are microorganisms (Yeast, Fungi) biofuels and algae-based biodiesel. Second

and third generation biofuels are better than first generation biofuels for sustainable

development as they are carbon neutral, or they reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide as

they are carbon negative. But, the production of first generation biofuels is causing a

substantial rise of the world food prices. However, the second generation biofuels

greatly affect the wood production. As microalgae industrial culture does not directly

compete with food and wood production, it can represent a great potential economic

development. In fact, the use of microalgae for biodiesel production would permit to

reduce deforestation and preserving the forest heritage. Thus, the industrial production

of microalgae could be considered as a sustainable solution to energetic, environmental

and food problematic.

The world is now frequently invaded with strange new organisms. The viral

infections and consequent death are fast increasing in numbers. As virus needs living host

to multiply in most scenarios the blood cell platelets count decreases in number. So much

is needed to sustain their count in body. To enable this the advancement in invitro cell

culturing lead to platelet development in hematological settings (InVitro). The Culture

derived platelets generated from the CD34+ progenitor cells showed similar

morphological and functional characteristics as that of isolated platelets. The shedding of

platelets from megakaryocytes was induced by a specific cytokine cocktail of TPO, SCF,

IL6 and IL1β. The structural features analyzed using SEM and TEM indeed revealed sim-

ilarity between isolated natural platelets and culturally derieved platelets.

Page 9 Volume 2, Issue 2

Functional culture derived platelets from CD34+ progenitor cells – A

boon for treatment of Platelet disorders

J.Jason Raj 4th B.Tech

Biodiesel: Algae a Renewable Source for l iquid fuel S.Amuthalakshmi 2 n d M.Tech

"Shoot for the moon.

Even if you miss, you will

land among the stars." -

Les

Brown

The Department of Biotechnology,

MSEC comprises research laboratories on

par with international standard. The de-

partment has modern class rooms and la-

boratories equipped with sophisticated

instruments. Students are enlightened with

the fundamental concepts of Life Sciences

and Chemical Engineering to acquire skill

sets for manipulating the living organisms

and to exploit them for the production of

commercially important recombinant

products.

Our students are given hands on train-

ing in modern tools of Biotechnology in

our laboratories. One of the unique charac-

teristics of the courses offered by our de-

partment is we are having limited strength

of 30 and 18 students per batch for our B.

Tech and M. Tech courses and learning

process.

Carrier Opportunit ies and Competit ive Examinations :

Department of Biotechnology

Mepco Schlenk Engineering

College

Sivakasi—626 005

Virudhunagar District .

Phone : 91 4562 235150

Fax : 04562—235111

Email :

msec_bt@mepcoeng.ac.in

stephenraj@mepcoeng.ac.in

Discover the Thinker in you

www.mepcoeng.a

c.in/biotech.asp

Sigma -Aldrich:

Sigma– Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. The biochemical

and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology,

pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and chemical manufacturing. The career path is

endless.

Orchid Pharma:

Orchid chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd is a vertically integrated company spanning the en-

tire pharmaceutical value chain from discovery to delivery with established credentials in research,

manufacturing and marketing. It is ranked among the top 15 pharmaceuticals companies in India. They

offer a career opportunities in all aspects of pharmaceuticals research, manufacturing and marketing as

well as corporate support functions.

Competitive Examination:

The following exams are being notified in the month of January/February

Combined Biotechnology Entrance Exam (CBEE) conducted by JNU for

DBT sponsored M.Tech courses

Biotechnology Eligibility Test (BET) conducted by DBT for Junior Re-

search Fellowship and Ph.D

Ph . D and Research centers:

The following are some of the research centers available

Centre for cellular and Molecular Biology , Hyderabad

Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad